Enjoyed the Fashion Police column on Jan. 26 on black clothing. As a year-round Long Island, N.Y., resident, it can be depressing--black clothes and a gray day during our winter months. Attending a December wedding in South Carolina, I wore a mauve gown and coordinating beads and felt I made a good choice, as a senior citizen who, along with other guests, shunned black. BARBARA RHATIGAN Bethpage, N.Y.

The advertisement appeared on Craigslist in early December. "Need a real aggressive man with no concern for women," read the posting on the Internet classified advertising forum. Its purported author was a Casper, Wyo., woman, whose photo also was posted. One week later, a man accepted the offer, forcing his way into the woman's home, tying her up and raping her at knifepoint. "I'll show you aggressive," he allegedly said, according to court testimony. In fact, authorities say, the woman had nothing to do with the ad. Instead, they say, a former boyfriend had posted it, soliciting her assault.

Investigators completed their on-site probe of the crash of Avianca Flight 52 that killed 73 people, paving the way for the cleanup of the wreckage piled atop a Long Island, N.Y., hillside. The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board ended at the crash site in Cove Neck, where investigators spent five days sifting through the wreckage of the aircraft that went down last week apparently because it ran out of fuel.

Federal officials said they will reconstruct part of the TWA Flight 800 jumbo jet at a Long Island, N.Y., hangar and zero in on the forward cargo area as the most likely spot to show what knocked the airplane out of the sky. FBI officials said they still are confident investigators will learn the cause of the July tragedy. But they are acknowledging the possibility that they will never determine why the plane went down. So far, 30% of the airliner has been recovered.

A nurse's aide from Long Island, N.Y., set the world record for 50-cent slot machine payouts by winning more than $1.9 million at Caesars Hotel and Casino. Sylvia Babitch, 67, hit the $1,972,424 jackpot after putting just $9 in a Fabulous 50s slot. The previous record of $1.7 million was won in January at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort. "I really can't even speak," Babitch said. "I just know that I came down in a bus and I'm going back in a limousine."